Relationships

Relatives

"Well, now that the Earth's crisis is finally over, I think I'll just lay down for a moment and Zzzzzzzzz"

— Ninten

Ninten (ニンテン, Ninten) is the main protagonist of EarthBound Beginnings. He is a boy from the suburbs of Podunk, the older brother of Minnie and Mimmie, the son of Carol and her unnamed husband, and the great-grandson of George and Maria. He usually uses common-place items such as baseball bats as his primary weapon, along with boomerangs and slingshots. Ninten is the only character in the EarthBound series to suffer from asthma during battle. This is similar to Ness's homesick status effect in that it is unique to their characters only.

Contents

Appearance

Ninten is stated in the encyclopedia to be 152 cm (5ft 0in) tall and weighing 42 kg (93 lbs). He wears a red baseball cap with a blue bill turned to his left, and sticking out of it is his short black hair. He has black eyes, which on his clay model resemble the style of eyes drawn on 1920s-1930s cartoon characters. He wears a blue t-shirt with thin yellow stripes, tucked under blue shorts on only one side. His socks are red, and he wears blue shoes.

Biography

Ninten lives in a small house north of Podunk with his Mother and Father (although the latter is rarely at home, and does not appear in-game until the epilogue), and his two twin sisters. Ninten's adventure begins when a poltergeist causes some objects in his home to become animate and violent. After Ninten routs the poltergeist by defeating a possessed baby doll, he begins to investigate the origin of these strange phenomena, which have begun occurring across the countryside. The cause of these events is later revealed to be a group of alien invaders led by Giygas.

Like most protagonists of early Nintendo games, Ninten is generally a silent character, having no speaking roles beyond "yes" or "no" responses, with the exception of a brief few lines of dialogue at the end of the game. Ninten's personal weapon type is baseball bats, and his PSI abilities are primarily supportive and restorative in nature. As the game progresses, Ana develops feelings for Ninten, which culminates in a scene in which the two dance in a cottage on Mt. Itoi, where the player may choose whether or not he reciprocates. In EarthBound Beginnings and Mother 1 + 2, it is implied that the two maintain a relationship after the events of the game as the final cutscenes show Ana receiving a letter from Ninten.

Ninten is the only character in the series to be asthmatic. When his asthma is acting up, he is unable to take action in combat, somewhat similar to Ness's homesickness. Ninten's exclusive ability is 4th-D Slip, which can be used to flee from any escapable combat engagement with guaranteed success. Ninten's favorite food is Prime Ribs, and his favorite animal is the penguin.

PSI Abilities

Throughout Mother, Ninten can learn a variety of different Assist- and Recover-type PSI abilities. Among the Assist abilities are 4th-D Slip , DefenseDown, DefenseUp, Hypnosis, OffenseUp, PowerShield, PSI Shield and QuickUp. Among the Other abilities are Telepathy and Teleport. Finally, among the Recover abilities are Healing and LifeUp. Ninten is the only Mother series protagonist that doesn't know any offensive PSI. However, it is interesting to note that in the commercial for the original Mother, Ninten and Ana are seen working together to cast the offensive PK Beam to destroy a robot resembling one of the R•7030 series; a slight departure from Ninten's in-game PSI arsenal.

Unlike his counterparts Ness and Lucas, Ninten has yet to appear as a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series.

Etymology

Ninten's name is derived from the name Nintendo (only without the "do"), the company that published and developed the Mother series. The name 'Ninten' was used by Nintendo as a placeholder name in guides and suchlike for many games in the 1990's. Among the other generic titles the characters received in the instruction manual, Ninten himself was referred to as 'Boku', Japanese for "Me", in order to leave his name entirely up to the player. Screenshots and player's guides used "Ninten" as the main character's name, and it has since been adopted as his official name. In the Japanese Mother novel adaptation, however, he was called Ken.

Trivia

In the live-action commercial for the original Famicom version of Mother, the actor playing Ninten is wearing a and a white, red, blue striped t-shirt rather than the blue with yellow stripes shown on his clay model, and a red neckerchief resembling those worn by boy scouts. No other official depictions of Ninten show him wearing that, but fans usually draw him wearing at least the neckerchief to differentiate him from Ness.

Ninten's name might be based off of "Nintendo", similar to how Ness' name might be based off of "SNES" or "NES".

Ninten has the most known relatives of all the series' lead protagonists, with Ness having three, Lucas having four, and Ninten having either six or seven, depending upon whether or not Giygas (who would be his granduncle by adoption) is to be counted.

Oddly, in Earthbound Beginnings' Wii U Virtual Console release trailer, the demo player has erroneously entered "Steak" as Ninten's favorite food rather than Prime Ribs; Steak is not Ninten's favorite food, but Ness's.

Ninten was called "Ken" in the novelization of the game. This is due to Ninten having no official name at the time that it was written.

According to Mother Encyclopedia, Ninten is a big fan of baseball and he is a fan of San Francisco Giants. He received his cap as a gift from his father.

His blood type is A.

In the release trailer of Earthbound Beginnings, Ninten's figure appears to have no fingers. The same figure isalso seen in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.